Friday, March 5, 2010

I'm still dizzy thinking that my little girl is 6 month old now.She touched the 6 month milestone last week.. Can you believe it?? I don't want to go into all that "feels like yesterday when I brought her home...bla bla bla" its such a typical dialogue and I don't want to be a typical mom, but you know what?? It feels like yesterday when I brought her home from the hospital..
We were sooo clueless that day when she was put into our arms for the first time and we are clueless even today that how do people raise kids and how do they turn that tiny thing into a responsible human being?? Even they teach you so much, without spitting a word out of their mouths . It sure feels like not only she, but we have also grown so much. As parents and as human beings in general.. Well! my case is a little extreme I guess. I've become ridiculously emotional and stupidly sensitive person, thanks to my little monster.. Now even History channel and Animal planet make me cry so I don't even want to get into all that...But WOW!!! I'm dizzy again..
I always thought before I was a mother myself that why don't those parents realize when they talk about their kids that they can possibly bore the person they are talking to. At-least they bored me! I mean I don't care how many times your son poops or how good piano player your daughter is or how cute she looks when she sings that centuries old rhyme.. But now I do the same. So now I'll try to restrain myself and and do what i come here to do that is to tell you what I'm making today..
So we celebrated Aashvi's half birthday in our tiny little way & it was her half birthday there had to be a cake and considering how sleep deprived I am these days it has to be a super easy and quick one.. So it has to be a Red Velvet Cake.

First of all I chose it because I never have shared this recipe on my blog and second of all I've never tried a cream cheese frosting before so I thought they would pair well together. But you know what..to be honest this was the only cake for which I had all the ingredients at home sitting in my refrigerator dying to get out of there and I just never like throwing away the buttermilk I don't know why but we're just so close.. So I thought what the heck! let's make a Red velvet cake..Wait can I make it pink for my li'l girl? Why not?
So let's make a Pink velvet cake.
Things that I have used out of the ordinary here is a little cocoa powder. A little bit of contrasting taste into any recipe brings out the real taste of food so well. So try adding some here and you'll notice some difference. And we're making around 6-8 servings so a 9 inch baking pan would work well. Although I always run short of the frosting so I always make it a little extra but that's upto you. If you want extra frosting just add the amount of ingredients proportionately but always consider the ratio.
Alright! so the recipe follows:

Ingredients:
2 1/2 cups of all purpose flour
1 1/2 cups of vegetable oil. Again you can use unsalted butter if you like. I had oil handy so I used that.
1 1/2 cups of powdered sugar
1 teaspoon each of baking soda, baking powder, salt, white vinegar, vanilla extract and cocoa powder. Now if you have apple cider vinegar at home you can use that too, I prefer white.
2 eggs. Its important that the eggs are at room temperature because then they mix well in the batter and help making the cake soft.
1 tablespoon red food color. I just added lesser red color to make my cake pink. If you want it super red just add 2 TBSP of color.
1 cup buttermilk
For the frosting you'll need a pound of cream cheese
I don't like my frosting to be very sweet so I used a cup of confectioners suger. If you like it sweet you can use about 3-4 cups
1 teaspoon good vanilla extract and 1/2 a cup of unsalted butter. Again I like the frosting to be very light but if you don't mind butter the recipe calls for a cup of it.

If you like decorating your cake you can use any nuts or any color if you want. help yourself. I wanted mine to be very plain and simple.

First things first, preheat the oven to 350 deg. F and butter three 6 inch baking pans. This is going to be one cute small cake!
So first sift all the dry ingredients into a bowl and set it aside.
Now mix all the wet ingredients in a big bowl. First of I beat my eggs and then I start adding sugar turning the mixer to the lowest speed. When its mixed to the extent that the mixture looks light yellow in color then I add rest of the wet ingredients into it. Mix it all well.
Add dry ingredients into the wet ones but very slowly so that it doesn't make a clog and scrape the walls to mix everything thoroughly. I turn the mixer to low speed when adding the dry ingredients.
Place parchment paper in th bottom of all the three pans and pour the mixture into it. Place it in the oven and bake till a tooth pick comes out clean. Approx. 25-30mins.
After pulling them out of the oven let the cakes cool for 10-15 mins and then take them out and place on a cooling rack.Then comes the frosting:
Easiest and yummiest frosting ever! You'll need to use cream cheese which is at room temperature. Beat the cream cheese first with mixer at medium speed and turning the speed to low add the rest of the ingredients. I've used only a cup confectioner's sugar cos I wanted my frosting to taste a little sweet n sour but if you want your frosting sweeter feel free to add upto 4 cups of sugar.Mix everything well untill it becomes creamy, light and yummy.
Its always better to place your cake into the fridge for a couple hrs before actually frosting it. That makes the cake firmer and easier to frost.
I hope you enjoy your 'Red velvet cake with a twist' as much as we did!

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